Puccio de Rossi

Puccio de Rossi (1084-) was a nobleman of Milan.

Biography
Puccio de Rossi was the eldest son of Conte Bernardo de Rossi, the heir to the lordship of Milan in northern Italy. Puccio was deranged and aloof, with faltering courage and a dislike for Venetians, the allies of Milan; he was not the first choice as the heir to Duke Cristoforo de Rossi when he succeeded to the lordship in 1116. Puccio's father Bernardo died during the siege of Cagliari in 1096 in battle with the Sicilians, and Puccio was raised by his mother Maria de Rossi in the capital city of Milan. In 1116, Puccio was wedded to the 16 year-old Pasqua Carbonetti as a part of a diplomatic agreement between the House of Rossi and the wealthy Carbonetti family of Lombardy.

Despite his mental instability, Puccio was given command of an army and dispatched to recapture Sardinia from his father's killers, the Sicilians. However, Pope Gelasius II blocked out any option of fighting, as he threatened to excommunicate either faction that broke an eight-year truce that he set up to stop the shedding of Christian blood. At the same time, the Pope called for a crusade against Cairo, so Puccio was dispatched to take his army and a fleet of Milanese galleys to Egypt. His surprise landing at Alexandria succeeded in capturing the city in 1120 and he proceeded to capture Cairo after a two-year siege. Puccio redeemed his initial command problems with the honorable success of leading a crusade; he conquered Cairo before the Hungarian army traveling through the Balkans, Turkey, and the Levant could get past the Turkish capital of Iconium.